PRINCE BIMBO OLASHORE – A FEW MINUTES A ‘SLAVE’

I sha like to call myself a slave. It is my own way of showing extant humility. Na my Mama teach me. She would usually say, “Common shut up my slave” when she is talking to me and we would laugh.

When I meet intellectual giants, I go into my ‘slave’ mode. I listen and learn. I bow and try to sponge as much as I can. It was Dapo Adelegan, the maestro that gave me the link. He was the one that said, “Call Prince, you will learn one thing or the other.”

What Dapo did not know was that as a young investment banker, I had gone for completion board meeting – that is when you are about to go to market with an offer – and Albert Okumagba, my then boss at BGL and Prince Bimbo Olashore where both headlining the offer.
The then Doyen of the market — forgotten his name — had stood up and said when two Princes back an offer, it cannot help but succeed.

That afternoon, I started looking very closely at the career trajectory of Prince Olashore. I had a huge admiration for what he was doing at Lead Merchant Bank who were my customers while at Habib Trustees.

I also had friends there, people like Segun Banjoko and Seyi Abe with Mrs Ojo and my interactions showed a world class level of professionalism.

So, my meeting with Prince almost 20 years later was remarkable. He was smaller in stature, I guess from disciplined living, and still had his good looks. We talked, or should I say, he talked about his career, his present focus which is heavily into nonprofits and his outlook towards life and politics.

Our conversation further cemented my respect for him that afternoon and I presented to him my book ‘Aremu’ as a gift.
It was a wonderful meeting I must say. God bless you sir.